


Captain Marvel and Captain America Walk into a Diner

by smolassassinchildx (smolassassinchild)



Category: Captain Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Movie Fusion, Diners, Gen, Misses Clause Challenge, Origin Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 11:17:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1093271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smolassassinchild/pseuds/smolassassinchildx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>More than a setup for a joke, Carol Danvers schools Steve Rogers on who Fury's left out of his little boys' club.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Captain Marvel and Captain America Walk into a Diner

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kathryne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathryne/gifts).



> Hello, yuletide recipient! I know you asked for all the ladies, but my brain sorta latched onto the idea of why all the ladies aren't in the movies. And here is Carol to explain Steve a thing. 
> 
> It is set in the aftermath of Thor: The Dark World.
> 
> Also, it is tagged for Misses Clause Challenge, while there is a lot of interaction between Carol and Steve, the theme of this story is about why the hell aren't there more women in MCU.

> _[SMS-Jess]: Remember this guy?_

Carol's hand hesitated for a moment, her mind working too hard to block out the last video she'd been sent by Jess, which was also the reason she refused to eat chocolate ice cream ever again. Finally she clicked on the embedded link. Everyone deserved a second chance or, in Jess’s case, a twelfth. After a few seconds of loading—thank you, StarkPhone—the news clip began to play.

> _I'm here at Stonehenge, for what has been an interesting unfolding of events today. The police reported the scene shortly after 11 a.m. this morning, after a seemingly harmless rambler approached the area then started to strip naked and effectively terrorize tourists there with scientific equipment while shouting that he was trying to save them. The man, later identified as noted Astrophysicist Dr. Erik Selvig, has been called in for questioning by police._

Carol bit her tongue, uncertain if she was holding back laughter or tears. Selvig was one of two civilian scientists, along with Dr. Jane Foster, who had been granted access to a small portion of S.W.O.R.D.’s databases in the aftermath of the incident in Puente Antiguo. Their paths did not cross all that often, but Carol knew the man and knew what had… happened to him in New York—that news certainly didn’t travel slowly. She couldn’t blame him for losing it, after having alien forces screwing with him—she probably understood his situation more than anyone, right now.

Before she could lift a thumb to text back a reply, a familiar voice drew her from her thoughts. “Excuse me, Colonel. Is this seat taken?”

Steve “Captain America” Rogers and his hero-jaw stood by the table, hands tucked into his jacket pockets.

===

_”‘Beginning an exploratory investigation?’” Hill echoed, as she exited the office with Carol in tow._

_“That’s the word from Brand,” she replied, tucking the folders into her briefcase. The wearing fabric on the arms of her dress uniforms were near to breaking, inching closer each time she flexed her arm; who the hell decided dress uniforms should exist? Hill’s incredulous arch of the eyebrows indicated that she and Carol felt more or less the same on the issue. But no more talk, meeting was over, and apparently, they had company._

_“Captain Rogers.” Hill stepped forward to greet the impossibly recognizable man in front of them. “This is Colonel Danvers.”_

_“Colonel?” Something in his hero-jaw twitched imperceptibly._

_Something Carol could not read. “That isn’t a problem for you, is it,_ Captain _?”_

_And like the 1940s never happened, or at least not the way she expected the 1940s to have happened, he shook his head and gave a polite smile. “Not at all.”_

===

“Just Carol is fine,” she said, waving to the empty seat across from her, which he occupied with a grateful look.

“Much appreciated,” he said, shrugging off the leather jacket and slipping it into the corner of the booth.

Carol cast a nod to the waiter, signaling for another cup of coffee. “So what brings you here?” she asked, looking back to Captain Rogers.

“I was hoping to grab a coffee with some friends, but since most of my friends are in nursing homes or dead—“ he trailed off, but his tone remained remarkable self-effacing throughout.

“What’s the matter? Tony Stark can’t take time out of his busy schedule to grab a cup of joe with a living legend?” Carol remarked, arching an eyebrow.

That got a small laugh out of him. “Not exactly. Dr. Banner isn’t too fond of caffeine, and Thor… Well…”

Not really much more to be said about that. The news channels were running 24-7 coverage of the incident in Greenwich. Talking heads talking nonsense around the clock with apocalyptic theories and demanding to know who these so-called superheroes think they are, blah blah blah. The din in the diner was at least loud enough to cover the sound of the current clip playing on the TV above the cashier’s station.

“You know, I listened to the original War of the Worlds broadcast in ’38,” Steve remarked, nodding gratefully to the waiter as he placed the white ceramic mug on the table. “From the beginning, unlike those who tuned in halfway through and thought there was an actual extraterrestrial invasion.” He shook his head. “But this time—“

“These guys aren't extraterrestrial. They are interdimensional,” Carol corrected.

Steve looked over at her over the top of his mug. “What’s the difference?”

Carol reached over and grabbed a packet of sugar and three packets of artificial sweetener. She placed the pink, yellow, and blue packets in one vertical line, and the white sugar packet a few inches to the left of those.

“For something to be considered extraterrestrial, it needs to come from our dimension. That means, even if it takes billions of years, you can travel to it in a straight line.” She pointed to the blue packet. “Earth,” the yellow “Venus”, and the pink “Mars, are pretty much the closest examples. If we were to get little green men from one of these planets, they’d be extraterrestrial. But Asgard?” She pointed to the white sugar pack. “You can travel in our dimension forever and not reach it. You need something like the portal in New York to get there.”

Steve’s eyes followed her demonstration, nodding understandingly throughout. _Okay. Managed not to lose him, there._ Turns out, she didn’t have to worry about losing him. The blast from the past was about three steps ahead of her. “Is that why S.W.O.R.D. was unprepared for the attack on New York?”

===

_The official story stated that the mission was a supply run. If anyone asked why a high-ranking air force pilot volunteered to go bring freeze-dried ice cream and spare parts to the International Space Station, the answer certainly would not have included any information about an alien distress call._

_The small vessel—an escape pod—remained cloaked to all of Earth’s detection devices. If it had not been for the transmission, no one would have seen it at all._

> _“My name is Captain Mar-Vell of the Kree Empire; I am in need of assistance.”_

_Carol had been the first to board the broken, sputtering ship. The being, injured and caught half-stuck behind a buckled bulkhead, looked surprisingly human, with gratitude and fear in his eyes—right up until the moment the ship’s small engine melted down in a brilliant explosion._

===

Carol sat back, drumming her fingers on the table. Well. _That_ was a question. “Guess it’s not true what they say about blonds,” she mused.

His brow furrowed. “What do they say about blonds?”

“That they’re stupid.”

“You’re blond.”

“See? Not true.” She leaned forward, forearms resting on the table as she lowered her voice. “How did you figure it out?”

The captain followed suit, adopting a similar posture. “I overheard you and Hill discussing Commander Brand—“

“No,” Carol cut him off. “ _How_ did you figure it out?”

If Steve was offended by the unspoken accusation that he did not have the modern technological know-how to poke through the encrypted and firewalled resources that mentioned S.W.O.R.D., he didn’t show it. “I did some research.”

“You asked Stark.”

“Stark helped,” he conceded. “But in all seriousness, how does an air force pilot get involved with Sentient World Observation and Response Department? That is a mouthful, how did they even come up with that?”

“They wanted an acronym to match S.H.I.E.L.D.” Carol reached across the table to grab Steve’s coffee, her eyes meeting his in the unspoken command— _watch_. A long breath escaped her lips. Within moments, and through practiced concentration, the dark liquid went from lukewarm, to bubbling, then a steady rolling boil. “Energy. I got caught in a blast of alien energy and now I can absorb and project it. Hell, I raise the temperature of any room I’m in by about two degrees.”

Unfazed, Steve replied, “I thought it seemed a bit warm over here. I assumed we were just sitting near a heater.”

“That would be me,” Carol concluded with a shrug. “Contrary to what Fury might have you believing with his little Boys Club, the Avengers aren’t the only superheroes walking around.”

“Why wouldn’t he have called you in on the Avengers Initiative?” Steve asked.

“Beats the hell out of me. I’ve gone over all the possibilities in my head at least a dozen times, and they all sound like absolute bullshit. I’ve asked around, too.”

“‘Asked around?’”

“Other superheroines,” she replied. “I’m not looking to force anyone out of the phone booth, but we’re around. We are PIs, lawyers, fashion designers, doctors, students, and the list goes on. And Fury knows we exist, we—”

“There you are,” a familiar voice cuts her off. Carol glances up to the usual scowl and sweep of dark hair her friend perpetually wears. “That furry asshole you live with bit me again. Who’s your friend?”

“Furry asshole?” Steve asked.

“My cat.” Carol scooted a few inches towards the window, making some extra room on the seat next to her. “Steve, this is my _coworker_ , Jessica Drew. Jess, this is Captain Rogers.”

“He looked taller on TV,” she said.

“I’m sitting down.”

Jess plopped down in the booth next to her, waving for the waiter. “Still shorter.”

“Sooo what brings you here,” Carol cut in, trying to derail the conversation.

“Your cat bit me. Reminded me I was hungry.” The statement was followed by an order for a double-decker turkey club, extra bacon and fries. Even Carol remained impressed by the amount of food Jess could put away.

Steve dug his wallet out of his jacket pocket and threw a few dollars onto the table. “I will let you two catch up. But I will be in touch, I think we could do some good work together.”

He had a firm handshake. Just like Captain America should, Carol thought.

Left on their own, Jess slipped around to sit on the vacated side of the booth. “What was that about?” she asked, about the same time the oversized sandwich was plopped in front of her.

“Avengers stuff,” Carol replied, a small smirk forming on her lips.

“Pfft,” Jess rolled her eyes and took a huge bite out of the middle of the sandwich.

Jess’s argument remained that if Fury didn’t want the girls on his team, then that was his loss, they were out there saving the world and Fury was a dick anyway. But the Avengers were another matter entirely. They weren’t covert, working in the shadows for an organization whose very existence was barely known. The Avengers were high-profile, with the news stories and action figures and whatever else, making little kids talking about wanting to save the world when they grow up. Carol wanted young girls—like Kit who lived in her building--to see heroes who looked like them.

“You’re right though,” Jess muttered through a mouthful of sandwich. Carol looked up with an eyebrow arched. Was she coming around? “He does have that serious hero-jaw going on.”

**Author's Note:**

> Women Mentioned By Name or Otherwise:  
> Abigail Brand  
> Janet Van Dyne  
> Jessica Jones  
> Misty Knight  
> Faiza Hussein  
> Jennifer Walters


End file.
